Thursday, November 29, 2007

WORKERS VOW TO CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE FOR SYSTEM CHANGE –THE “MAGDIWANG” WAY

Workers belonging to PARTIDO NG MANGGAGAWA (PM) together with labor groups from LABOR – Labor Alliance for Better Order and Reforms and the newly formed group KONTRA assembled today in front of the Bonifacio Shrine to pay homage to working class hero, Gat Andres Bonifacio and launched the broadest and biggest coalition against contractualization.

PM Chairperson, Renato “Ka Rene” Magtubo said that, “The workers are one with Senator Trillanes and our brothers and sisters form the military and progressive groups in calling for system change. The workers continue to be the most oppressed sector in society since time immemorial. The revolution that Gat Andres started remains relevant up to these times when the majority of our people – the workers - continue to suffer from oppression and tyranny. While Bonifacio fought against tyranny and oppression from Spanish Rule, today’s generation of workers fight against the culprit of globalization and its willing puppets – the GMA regime and its capitalist bourgeoisie.”

“However, the workers believe that the revolution can only be won if the masses – the workers and the poor – unite in this struggle for change. The workers need not a messiah to win this battle but must rely on their collective strength to overthrow this corrupt regime and fight for concrete reforms that will uplift their conditions. PM calls on the workers and the people to unite for genuine system change.”

Matubo concluded “Bonifacio started the Katipunan to unite the Filipino people to fight against tyranny and oppression and inspired a revolution. While we do not approve of a military junta, the workers warmly applaud and welcome Senator Trillanes call for system change. To win this revolution, the working class will ensure that when the time comes, it is the overwhelming numbers and the powerful force of the masses that will determine the right course of the struggle. This is how genuine democracy works. As we commemorate the day of our working class hero, Gat Andres Bonifacio, our pledge is to continue the struggle of Bonifacio’s unfinished revolution and the call of Senator Trillanes and our brothers in the military for genuine change. The workers accept this challenge and vow not to shirk from it”.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

In the face of a new SWS survey that revealed a worsening of the hunger problem, the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) declared government's "war on hunger" as lost and called for an accounting of the P1 billion alloted for it. The latest survey on hunger showed a "national deterioration" as more Filipinos went without food across the regions.

Judy Ann Miranda, secretary general of PM, asserted that "As critics have alleged, the war on hunger announced by GMA last March is a sham and a scandal. It is another billion of the people's money down the drain with no accomplishment to speak of."

The group is challenging Congress to make an investigation into the mechanics and expenditures of the program because of its "patent failure." Miranda added that "The NBN scandal is worth P15 billion and merited primetime attention from the Senate and the media. The anti-hunger budget of P1 billion is much less in comparison but it is no less important since it directly affects the poor."

The labor group asserts that the program was bound to fail since it "a band-aid solution to a crisis that needs major surgery." Miranda argues that "The free meals and cheap medicine that the government supposedly funded hardly scratch the surface of the hunger problem. It goes much deeper for hunger is rooted in a flawed policy on wages, jobs and debt. The cheap labor policy, jobs losses due to factory closures and automatic debt appropriation all combine to deny the people their daily bread." She cited the fact that the present minimum wage in the NCR of P362 is not even half of the P786 cost of living in the metropolis.

The Partido ng Manggagawa renewed its call for an economic relief package that involves a legislated wage hike, tax exemption for workers earning below the cost of living, subsidies for basic goods and services, amendments to the labor code to protect jobs, repeal of the law on automatic debt payments and the realignment of the savings to fund social programs. ###

The Filipino working class joins the peoples around the world in condemning the brutal suppression by the military junta of the protest movement in Burma. We add the voice of the workers in the call for democratization in Burma, freedom for political prisoners and an end to the military rule.

We express our solidarity for the people of Burma especially our Burmese brother and sister workers. The working class of Burma suffer as much or even more as other sectors and classes of Burmese society under the heel of the military junta.

The Burmese military dictatorship may be a throwback to the Dark Ages of old but under its iron fisted rule the new paradigm of globalization is being forced down the throats of Burmese workers. Multinational corporations are extracting super profits from the blood and sweat of Burmese workers who are denied the most elementary labor rights by the brutal dictatorship.

The Filipino workers sympathize with the situation of their Burmese brothers and sisters for we suffered the very same exploitation and very same abuse under the Marcos dictatorship. In fact the burgeoning protest movement in Burma against price increases recall to mind the welgang bayans of the '80's and '90's against economic hardship during and after the Marcos dictatoship.

The Burmese military dictatorship hope to nip in the bud the protest movement against the economic crisis and scuttle its maturity into a political movement for democracy in their country. But the tables may yet be turned and instead the bloody repression may still incite the beginnings of a new uprising against military rule.

Despite the forced isolation of Burma under the dictatorship, international solidarity has a significant role to play in sustaining and strengthening the protest movement in Burma against economic hardship and for political freedom. Thus the Partido ng Manggagawa will educate and mobilize the Filipino workers as vanguard fighters for democracy to stand as one body and speak with one voice in support of the Burmese people and workers in their struggle for political freedom and social emancipation. ###

On the 35th anniversary of the declaration of martial law, the ghost of authoritarianism has not been exorcised and continues to haunt the country. It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Then Ferdinand Marcos had his PD 1081 and the ASSO (Arrest Search and Seizure Order). Now Gloria Arroyo has her E0 464 and the HSA (Human Security Act). All serve to restrict the civil liberties and trample upon the democratic rights of the people.

Even the cast of principal characters looks like a rerun of the old. Then the was Ferdinand Marcos and the First Lady Imelda forming the conjugal dictatorship. Now there is Gloria Arroyo and the First Gentleman Mike plundering the nation's coffers. With Mike Arroyo exposed as the mystery man, the lady in Malacanang cannot be too far behind. In fact, Gloria Arroyo graced the signing of the ZTE deal in China herself which makes her the godmother of the anomalous contract.

Gloria and Mike's partnership in plundering the people's money forms a consistent thread in past six years. The overpriced ZTE broadband deal worth P15 billion is just the latest in a series of anomalies. In the heady first days after Edsa Dos, Nani Perez served as the new president's bagman for the bribe money from IMPSA. After which came the scandal of the Diosdado Macapagal highway and the fertilizer scam in 2004. The theft of the nation's coffers go hand in hand with the theft of the people's liberties. Civil liberties must be restricted in order to hide the plunder perpetrated by the couple in Malacanang.

Gloria Arroyo is already the longest serving president or resident of Malacanang since Ferdinand Marcos. And if charter change is succesfully pulled off sometime in the next three years, she may even get to go beyond her constitutional term limit in 2010. In 1972, Ferdinand Marcos built the dictatorship upon the illusion of constitutional authoritarianism. In 2010, Gloria Arroyo may consolidate her dictatorship upon the gimmick of charter change. ###

Friday, April 13, 2007

TUCP's demand for a wage hike is right but a petition at the wage boards is wrong

The Partido ng Manggagawa supports the demand for a wage hike aired by TUCP but believes that the regional wage boards are the wrong venue. Instead of a petition at the wage boards we call on the TUCP to join the rest of the labor movement that has come together to push for a legislated wage hike.

The workers' clamor for economic relief through wage hikes and tax exemptions remain unmet with the stonewalling by the House of Representatives of the P125 legislated salary increase. Whether the workers get P75 or P125 is of secondary concern. What is paramount is an honest-to-goodness wage hike that will be truly beneficial because it is across-the-board and nationwide in scope.

The 18-year track record of the wage boards is a sorry history of wage orders that are not just stingy and not across-the-board but also full of exemptions, deferments and other loopholes. Thus the wage orders, though almost yearly promulgated, have been of little benefit to the greater majority of the workers. The wage boards serve as a pillar in the cheap labor policy of government. They must be abolished for being inutile.

A legislated, across-the-board and nationwide wage hike is a realistic possibility of course only with the convening of the new Congress in July. But a petition for the P75 wage hike through the wage boards will also be a valid prospect only after July with the lapse of the one year prohibition for new wage orders. Thus labor movement must use the time to muster its strength for the wage fight in the last half of the year.

If the TUCP will march side by side with of the rest of the labor movement to struggle for a legislated wage hike, the balance of forces would be better for a victory this time around. On the other hand if the TUCP turns its back on its brothers and sisters in the labor movement and goes solo in its petition at the wage board then the capitalists and the state will be applauding the break in labor's unity. ###

Thursday, April 5, 2007

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) is the only labor-based party-list group in the House of Representatives. Its votes in the 2001 and 2004 elections - 260,000 votes and 450,000 votes respectively - far exceed that of other organizations that claim to represent the working class.

PM combines work inside Congress and mobilization outside parliament to defend and advance the rights and welfare of the workers who are the majority of Filipinos today. In the age of globalization, the workers endure low wages, insecure employment, widespread layoff, high prices and inadequate social services. There is thus a categorical imperative to protect labor rights and workers interests and that is the paramount objective of PM as the political party of the Filipino working class.If Philippine democracy is not just a formality but has substance, then the workers who are the majority must be represented in Congress. PM is the voice and conscience of the Filipino working class whether they are the factory workers or the office employees, the farm workers in the countryside or the millions of the urban poor.

In recent years, PM is best known for tirelessly pushing for the P125 legislated wage increase. The choreography between work inside parliament and mobilization in the streets is the secret behind the advance of the P125 wage hike from seemingly an impossible mission to a realistic possibility.

Complementary to campaigning for workers' issues, PM has also fought for concerns of other sectors. PM was instrumental in the civil society group called Task Force Subic Rape Case that successfully sought justice for the rape victim known as Nicole. PM joined the Filipino people in celebrating the first conviction of a US soldier guilty of crimes and in condemning the transfer of jurisdiction back to American hands.

PM was a petitioner to the Supreme Court case alleging irregularities in the midnight approval of the anti-poor 10% VAT on additional products. The also group backed some 60,000 teachers in their appeal to the Supreme Court for the release of their cost of living allowances.

Its incumbent representative in Congress is Renato “Ka Rene” Magtubo who is the union president of Fortune Tobacco that is owned by the second richest Filipino today, Lucio Tan. He was called by the media as a maverick for resolutely fighting for workers demands in a Congress that is packed with representatives of the rich and powerful, and for exposing in 2001 the payola given to solons for supporting the privatization of the power industry that is the cause of the high cost of electricity.

PM has some 100,000 card-carrying members from as far north as the Mountain Province and as down south as Basilan. The reach and influence of PM however is double or triple that number through its fraternal relations with more than 400 labor unions and hundreds of urban poor groups.

The organized base of PM is firmly established in the NCR and Calabarzon area where the workers and the poor are heavily concentrated. Yet PM has achieved a truly nationwide spread with chapters in Abra, Mountain Province, Benguet, Baguio, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Tacloban City, the city and province of Cebu, Bohol, Bacolod City and the whole Negros Island, the cities of Iloilo, Roxas and Passi, all the provinces of Panay Island, even in Boracay, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Norte, Lanao Note, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao City, South Cotabato and General Santos City. There is even a chapter in Hong Kong of overseas Filipino workers.

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Our Vision

Our dream is a world that gives due importance to the role of the working class and respects the dignity of labor. A social order where the working men and women of the world live together in peace, harmony and progress.Our aspirations lie in the emancipation of labor. A government that is truly of the workers, by the workers and for the workers.

Our hopes rest in a future where social progress thrives not for the benefit of a few people but for the development and richness of the entire humankind. A society that is free from the chains of wage slavery and where oppression does not exist.

Our Mission

Forge the unity of the workers into an independent working class party to organize them as a potent political force in social transformation towards the advancement and protection of labor from the scourge of globalization, establishment of a genuine workers’ government and the emancipation of the working class from capitalist exploitation and wage slavery.

Workers Unite!

The working class is the most important class in society. But, labor will only be a force to reckon with at a time when labor assumes the responsibility of leading the struggle to a decent living - free from exploitation of the propertied elite.

The time has come to rally every underprivileged sector of the society, to take the bull by the head and confront the issues of today. The working class must take an active role in every political exercise presented. The backbone of the independent party must be comprised of the working class with the other marginalized sectors in solidarity.

We must organize politically.

This is our own challenge and we must vow not to shirk from it.

Our future is in our hands, in our unity, in our struggle, in our party.